Chris' Blog

Body composition is a measurement of the human body concerned with fat, muscle, bone, and water density. Measurements of body composition give insight into an individual’s health and physical fitness as an individual and compared to their peers.

Body composition can be measured using numerous methods. The most popular of these methods are skinfold caliper test, hydrostatic weighing, bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA), Dual e...

Nutrition is a science pertaining to the relationship between food and its interactions with an organism including maintenance, growth, reproduction, health and disease (“The National Agricultural Library,” 1998). Foods relationship with athletes circles around athlete’s diet and their body’s response to that diet. Diet is the overall lifestyle habits concerned with eating food. Diets vary depending on the demands on an athlete’s training schedul...

A very common technique amongst dieters is trading off healthy foods for unhealthy foods with similar calorie content. The reasoning behind it is regardless of how you consume a calorie, they are all created equal when it comes to gaining / losing weight. And it’s true.

The most popular case of this is perhaps Mark Haub, PhD who at the time was (and may still be) an associate professor of nutrition at Kansas...

Different types of carbs: There are two main types of carbs. Complex carbs and simple sugars. Complex carbs are what people consider your “healthy carbs” they take more time to enter your blood stream and get to work, keep your energy levels more even, and keep you full. Common examples of complex carb foods are whole grain and whole wheat, brown or wild rice, oatmeal, and beans. These are the foods you should be eating in the days leading up to a game. Simple sugars on t...

It seems that these days everyone is looking for the ultimate supplement. The one that is going to make you the ?perfect athlete? and they are willing to spend hundreds of dollars doing it. Now, I am not saying that supplements do not work, and I have taken Protein and Creatine myself. However, the best supplement for athletic performance is everywhere and yes, it is even free. It is water.

While exercising your body is using macro-nutrients (specifically fats and carbohydrates) as their primary energy source. If you are working at a low intensity, you are mostly using calories from fat. However, as your intensity goes up, the ratio of fats as fuel switches over mostly to carbohydrates. Whether your body uses fats or carbohydrates as fuel depends on the presence of oxygen during exercise for the working muscles. The more oxygen available, the higher the percentage of fat used.

Anabolic Steroids were first put to use in the 1940’s to help bring malnutrition concentration camp survivors back to a healthy state. With the help of the drug, the victims were able to gain back the great amounts of muscle mass that was lost due to improper nutrition for such a long period of time. Eventually in the 1950’s and 1960’s, athletes caught wind of this “miracle drug” and began taking anabolic steroids to enhance athletic performance.

Everyone knows high cholesterol is not good for you. But do they know what cholesterol is or why our bodies produce it? Cholesterol is a form of fat. Its main purpose is to transport triglycerides to fat depots. Reason being, the triglycerides do not typically flow freely through blood. Therefore, they are wrapped up in protein so they can be transported (hence lipoprotein).

Remember back in the day when you could eat all you want and not gain an ounce? The days when you had that amazing gift called a “metabolism.” Then all of a sudden it just got up and left one day? Well, although your metabolism does slow down with age, there is another reason why it’s not what it used to be. You don’t stress it enough. Your metabolism is all the chemical processes that happen in your body. As you age, your body naturally slows down these chemical proce...

The days are getting longer and warmer. A good sign that bathing suit season is just around the corner. What does that mean? Time to trim up. One of the best ways to do that is add some muscle mass. For every pound of muscle you put on, it burns an extra 6 calories a day while at rest. Whereas one pound of added fat only burns 2 calories a day. Therefore, besides looking "bigger" by adding more muscle, you will also become leaner. Moreover, resistance training inceases metabolic activity thro...

Improve with Chris | "Fitness Services to improve your life." | The content on this site and everything related is NOT to be taken as medical advice. Please always seek a medical doctor prior to starting any exercise program. (c) 2017.